Trying To Get By Ch. 02

"I saw the coat folded in your hand, but you moved and it hung as though it came from nothing."

Rhisu rolled her eyes, "I just unfolded it in a hurry. Don't make it something that it wasn't."

Zhizah waved her hand as though there was a bee in the air. She gestured with one arm to Rhisu, "And you? You stand here in heavy armour that does not cover very much of your fine skin."

"It doesn't need to like this," Rhisu smiled, "The pieces work together. The protection is larger and thicker than the armour, but it doesn't really become active unless there's a threat to the wearer."

"And the gods possess their own magic," Zhizah said to press her point. "But it does not warm you like this fine coat warms me."

"Well no, ..." Rhisu said, "not now."

Zhizah held up her hand, fingers out and pointing upward as she brought it near to the blonde's side, just at the same height as the small of her back, "May I touch?"

Rhisu nodded and Zhizah slowly laid her hand against the light skin, marveling at the touch and how they were so different, feeling the ribs under the network of muscles, watching as she did. She splayed out her fingers and closed her eyes, sighing as she slid her hand around to Rhisu's back.

"You worried that my ears might freeze," she said softly as she opened her eyes, "Your skin here is bare to the wind and you do not care. My hand must feel like ice to you, yet you do not flinch. You feel so warm to my touch. Do you never feel cold? What about your ears?"

"I feel the cold," Rhisu nodded, "but I'm used to it, Zhizah. And if it gets cold enough, my ears would freeze too. This armour doesn't do much to keep me warm like this, but I can stand it. If I was less interested in meeting you and the rest than wanting to be warm, I don't think that any meetings would go very well. Lift your hand for a minute and I'll show you."

A moment later, Rhisu's armour began to spread rapidly all over her body in small sections. It ended as Zhizah watched the last pieces of the faceplate come together over the shining and fierce-looking helmet that she could not see into.

Lelly had been watching and let out a fearful gasp that was heard across the yards which lay between where she was and where Rhisu stood, looking more proud and deadly to her than almost anyone that she'd ever seen.

That helmet turned a little to regard her for a moment in response to the sound.

Lelly recoiled backward a few steps and fell onto her hindquarters in the snow.

Rhisu looked at Zhizah and the armour began to disappear until Rhisu stood before the priestess looking just as she had before, but with a slightly wider smile.

Zhizah noticed that her mouth was open again. "Does ... do all of your kind have this?"

Rhisu shook her head, still smiling, "No. They have something different. This kind of armour is only used by a few clans up in the mountains where ... I ... where I come from."

"The home of the gods!" Zhizah announced happily.

"ZhiZAHHhh," Rhisu groaned tiredly.

"Quiet please," Zhizah chuckled, "I am winning.

"You carry weapons easily that I could never even lift. Your lance standing in the snow there must weigh three times what mine does."

Rhisu looked at her lance and took it into her hand. With a motion of her thumb, the weapon began to shorten, seeming to slide into itself in sections until a moment later, it was only about half a meter long, including the now-shortened blade. She flicked it so that it appeared to spin end over end in her hand before she slid it into a place on her belt.

"Nothing to say?" Zhizah asked sweetly.

"Nothing that would do me any good," Rhisu grumbled softly.

Zhizah put her arm around Rhisu's waist again as she brought her other one around from the other side and pulled herself close.

"You may think what you like," she said looking up, "call yourself just a tired warrior who was once a leader. You do not see what I do. To me, you ARE a goddess in the flesh who was taken in a moment when she did not expect to be attacked, just as I was.

"You have never lain with another female, have you?"

Rhisu blinked in some surprise at the question, but after a moment, she shook her head, "I never really had the chance to or the time to really think of it.

"I mean, I knew that it happened, but until I met my male, I never really gave the idea of being together with anyone else of either kind in a love any real thought. Once I got to where there were casualties and dead piling up, I pushed the notion even farther away. Somebody like me doesn't have much of a life expectancy."

"But I see the way that you look at me when you think that I might not notice," Zhizah smiled, "If we are still speaking of our beliefs, I know that you believe that I am one of the most beautiful people alive. I should feel such pride, but it is not my way. I come from a place that would seem very backward to you.

"I feel ... I feel humbled in a way, that someone as mighty as you would have the thoughts that I can feel from you. I also feel happy that you have them.

"You have had a love. It was very strong between you and him. I know this because I saw how you were ready to weep so easily over his loss again. I have never had something such as that.

"I came from a little place that was only a bit drier than the jungle around it. All that I had were dalliances as I was growing up in the temples, playful little things, some evenings and afternoons spent in fumbled learning with another girl or two. They never became anything much for me because after a time, I found myself alone among the other girls.

"I have some power and ability. Those things, combined with the teachings of our faith caused me to rise. There are many priestesses there and I was only another of them all, but after a time, I became the single, most powerful young one."

She sighed, "But I was still only one of many, many others. To their eyes, I was above them and so they did not dare to approach me as they once had. So underneath everything, I am still a lonely girl from a very small village.

"In that place, the measure of beauty is a thin thing, since no matter what; we all look alike in many ways to an outsider. What do your people think of us?"

"There are as many ways to look at someone as there are people who look," Rhisu said quietly, "I can't say what my kind's thoughts would be in general since I don't really know, but then, I've never really spoken to many on the subject. I do know that there are a lot of males where I come from who are not shy to say that the girls where you're from are incredibly lovely.

"And if you ask a few of the girls - once they're in their cups deep enough to speak plainly, I've heard that more than a few hold pleasant thoughts of finding a good male in the jungle lands, and I've heard it said that if there was no war anymore, they didn't expect to have to search for very long at all. So I guess," she smiled, "that my people find yours to be very attractive.

"Such things were never really spoken of before, but now information flows a lot more easily than it used to. If there was no war, I'd say that there'd be quite a lot of travel between our countries."

"Did you ever have such thoughts?" Zhizah asked.

Rhisu shook her head, "Before I left? No. The war and all got in the way for me. I knew what your people looked like and I thought they looked good to me - or at least, there wasn't anything that I could see that I didn't like just out of hand. I'd seen images of your kind, I just never thought of it, since I knew where I was headed, and the odds were that it was probably to an early grave."

She chuckled, "Then I saw you and ... I dunno, something just changed for me. I saw beautiful and it was like I'd never seen something like that in my life."

"Though to be fair, "she smiled,"the Lowlander back there - she's the sweetest-looking one I've seen of her kind, though there's a huge difference. I hate to sound as dumb as a lot of the males that I've known, but I'm not especially fond of those ones.

"She's different, so I'm giving her points. I think it would take quite a lot to make me notice one, but I like her in spite of it all - even though she was prickly.

"My point is that all of a sudden I think I seem to be able to see a person for how they are inside a little.

Her eyebrows rose as a thought came to her, "I also had what I could say was a want in me for the first time too. I really never thought of girls this way before, but then my life was always about doing things that I had a duty to.

"Today I had this feeling that I thought felt so good to me when I first saw you - but then it was out of my head, since you looked about ready to fall over in the snow and all. I just knew that I had to do something right then."

Zhizah smiled, "I know of this difference. When you think of me, I feel it. I begin to feel something inside of me. I begin to know a little of what it must be like to live in someone's very strong heart - even though I have only just met you. It is a very warm and strong place. She has this also, but ... different. I do feel that I could like her and I like that feeling."

She chuckled, "But with you, I already know many things. I think it comes from what you are - as I have said."

Her eyebrows rose at a thought and she said, "I cannot even speak of the thoughts that you give to me when I only look at you."

Rhisu's mouth dropped though she was smiling, but Zhizah looked over with a firm expression, "It would not be wise to argue with me at this moment or even try to tell me that my thoughts did not come from you."

Rhisu smiled wider and nodded because she couldn't help it as she leaned down a little and kissed Zhizah softly for a moment.

"Why did you do that?" Zhizah asked.

Rhisu shrugged, "To settle some things for me. Maybe to see how it felt to kiss a girl. Maybe I was acknowledging something; like that I want you with me wherever or whichever way that over there is going to go, since it looks to me like a meeting. Why did you allow it?"

Zhizah smiled, "To settle some things for me also. One needs to think of the best option at all times if one is not mighty."

She winked, "As it happens, the best option is also the one that I really want. Maybe I wanted you to kiss me so that I might know how you kiss - which I really like now," she laughed. "Give me more thoughts, please."

Rhisu chuckled, "What? You mean like dirty little thoughts?"

Zhizah shook her head emphatically, "No no. I do not ever want any 'little' thoughts, if I can have my way."

She sighed pleasantly, "I want only the big ones."

Rhisu lowered her head and leaned so that her lips were against Zhizah's ear. She left a soft kiss and whispered as softly as she knew how. "Ziiihhh-zzaaahhh," was all that she said before placing another kiss.

The dark girl shivered in a way that she found to be very pleasant for the way that it warmed her and Rhisu felt a kiss left at the side of her neck.

"Say that to me again in a warm, quiet place, warrior," Zhizah whispered. "You might find that I give you everything then."

"Everything?" Rhisu asked quietly.

"Excuse me, uh, please."

Their heads snapped up and they both looked toward the source of the words.

The Lowlander stood there under the blanket, looking miserable. "I'm very sorry to interrupt, but I want to apologise for before, um, Rhisu. I was upset and afraid of you and I couldn't understand why you'd want to help someone like me. I'm past that now and I want to say thank you. F-for the blanket and the words.

"My name is Lelly."

"You're very welcome at last, then," Rhisu said with a small curious smile, still in some surprise. "How do you know my name?"

Lelly looked down at the snow, "It's quiet here and sound carries pretty far. I wasn't listening, but I heard most of what you two said when you weren't whispering.

"And ... and ..."

She groaned, "And I know who you are. You'll probably want to kill me just for saying this, but you were right about me. I've fought in the war. I was a scout."

She looked up, "It's not that hard at first, as long as you don't know the people that you're fighting at all."

She sighed, "Gets harder after a while, though.

"The planners get a little desperate, see? It makes them pick targets that regular people with much of a conscience wouldn't normally want to kill, like civilians. It just took me a long while to see that - that the planners get dirtier while they yell about being holier than you guys.

"My ... my girl, Khratti, she was a scout too, but she was also a sapper. We were together from when we were put in the same outfit. They found out about us and she got taken to a forward area for a big attack.

"I didn't think much about it because I was upset and missing her a lot. I didn't know if we'd still even be in the same area when it was over, so I wasn't paying attention until it happened.

"I - I want to say sorry for that too. All of it."

She stood looking down at that point, seeming to struggle with something inside herself.

Rhisu smiled, "Look uh, Lelly is it?"

The girl nodded, still looking down, so Rhisu said, "Lelly, It's alright.

"I was being a bit stone-headed too back there. Let's just -"

"NO IT'S NOT!" Lelly shouted down at her hooves in the snow with her hands balled into fists.

Rhisu fell silent and stared as Lelly wept quietly.

Lelly was built like most of her kind, though she was fairly thin. Her front legs were longer than her back ones like the rest of her people and her hide carried the striped, slightly greenish grey that was typical for where she came from. Overall, she was narrower than either of the others, but that was normal for what she was as well.

She spoke in a raw whisper, "It's ... It's not ... alright, Rhisu."

She sniffled and pointed, "You don't even know what I'm going to say but you're ready to tell me that it's alright. I even know that you want to help me. I think now that it's just who you are."

She shook her head, "But you can't ... and you won't even want ... to help me if I can ever get this out.

"But ... I - I have to try to ... to say it."

Lelly took a breath, "Khratti was there at Dumeyan. She was one of four sappers, there to guide some of our troop sections forward. She blew a piece of the outer wall so they could get inside. There were four breaches so I know that she did her part."

Lelly's voice began to fail her as she lowered her head and wept, sounding very small and forlorn, "She - she never came b-"

The rest was just some anguished sobbing.

After some moments, Lelly looked up, wiping her eyes, "I'm sorry ... sorry.

"The news carried about half of it live, you couldn't see anything in the dark but the flashes. I heard over the radio that they got one of the princes - the younger, good-looking one.

"I think I started crying then. The storybook dream of millions of girls, only ... only he wasn't in a storybook. He was a real person.

"He ... he was your husband.

"They fought him down and killed him when he was alone. The two sections of the garrison that he was commanding were all dead. He'd been wounded several times...

"But the prince, he held them off all by himself.

"We heard over the command radio that he wouldn't back down, didn't try to withdraw. He wouldn't give ground and refused to surrender. He just kept on fighting. The commander ordered them to finish it.

"I was in the same room. I looked over at him and he saw me shake my head. He yelled into the microphone to kill the prince right then and move on. They were wasting time.

"I didn't think it was even fair, what they did but ...

"The garrison was just defending but we were winning ground pretty easily. Then I heard something different - a counterattack - we lost radio communications ... our entire force was wiped out in like three minutes. They never even got to the castle itself. I remember the last word from the unit leader we were talking to."

She sniffled and looked at Rhisu, "Highlanders.

"He yelled out,"Highlanders" then he screamed and we heard nothing.

"There were Highlanders there. Big ones - like you, Rhisu.

"They just couldn't get to the prince in time.

"Turns out there was a company of them at the castle. A whole fucking hundred of them that no one knew about. They planned that raid because they thought that the Highlanders had been pulled to the front lines far away.

"Before I heard that, I wasn't happy but I was hoping that maybe Khratti was alright and it seemed like good news for our side until I heard how everyone got killed in the counterattack.

"I heard it happen. It went so fast. The commander was switching from one unit to another.

"Nothing.

"He called the transport group and told them to get out right then.

She looked away for a moment.

"Four hundred plus, ghosted in only minutes - one hundred percent fatalities. 'No prisoners taken', they said on the news. Zero survivors among the attackers."

She shook her head, "I watched the news but I felt like I had no arms, no legs. I felt hollow. Everybody was cheering - laughing and cheering - until they got to the part about the counterattack.

"They showed footage of the bodies everywhere and gave the body count even as it was still going on. So many ... blood and pieces all over. I hardly saw any that weren't my kind. I didn't see one Highlander who wasn't on his hooves and moving.

"Shooting ... we heard screams ... somebody calling his mother ... shooting. The big guns - like that one there," she said pointing to Rhisu's assault gun.

"Everybody started yelling but I didn't say a word, didn't make a sound. I - I couldn't."

She looked down, "I just knew that my ... that Khratti was ... gone.

"The ones I was with learned something that night that I already knew. Highlanders don't leave you much to cry over.

"What nobody knew but me was that they'll leave you even less if you piss them off and they don't take it kindly if you hurt one of theirs or even somebody who belongs to one of theirs.

"Highlanders only take prisoners when they need to know something and even then, it might be only one, maybe two. The most I've ever heard of was ten. Our command said they butcher prisoners, but I've met one not far from the village that I come from. I'd already learned not to believe most of what our command says anymore.

"That night, with what we did ... I knew that nobody was gonna get out alive. They even got the support and transport types in the forest near the town, maybe another fifty or so as they were pulling out, so that takes it to almost five hundred.

"A murdered prince - the husband of a Highlander - one of their own ..."

She shook her head, "What did our great leaders think could ever come from that mess that was any good?"

She took a breath and looked across the snow there between them, "The first time that I ever saw you, you were on the news, Rhisu.

"You got there too late, but the press found you and they made you give a statement. I thought I'd maybe feel a bit better, but I didn't.

"I felt worse.

"The thing is," she said as she looked into Rhisu's wet eyes, "I was probably the only one who wasn't happy to see your tears. But I wasn't the only one who saw what was behind those tears in your eyes. I knew what you were feeling then because I was feeling the same thing.

"You didn't know me, but because I knew what had happened - who he was to you - how I felt as though I was dying inside, I knew what you felt. They said on the news that you were one of their best, but I only saw a girl who was hurting and wanted to be left alone.

"I was already crying, Rhisu. I saw you and then I cried for you too.

"I wasn't there... I didn't do any of it.